I’m here too, but busy doing things around the house. Will probably watch on C-Span so I can keep working. 😦 Also have to do the strengthening exercises for my back. I know they are helping but I am SO ready to be 100% again.
Man, our reporting team is sharp! FIVE of us clocked in at the same time with the news that the ball has started rolling. 😆 TOD – Best news agancy for the Prezzie.
I think it is very strategic of the President to give a speech on immigration reform. This way, those republicans who quickly had a change of heart after the November elections could not go around and collect CREDITS for immigration reform. Just saying.
This is not meant to contradict your point, NCLB, yet sometimes when I listen to the President I’m left with the impression that he doesn’t pay too much attention to the collection of credits, GOP’s or otherwise. Instead I get a strong sense that he does what he does, when he does, because he just believes it’s the right thing to do and the right time to do it. For example, listening to him today, I don’t think the bipartisan guys’ announcement yesterday made the least difference to what the President wanted to say to the nation on the subject of immigration.
You know, while I’m extremely happy and satisfied the President won re-election and is officially serving his second term, I’m compelled to confess that I miss seeing and HEARING him almost every day. I wonder if he or his team has a solution for that? Like a thrice weekly ‘Chat with the People’, added to his weekly message, of course. 😛
“It also treats same-sex families as families by giving U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents the ability to seek a visa on the basis of a permanent relationship with a same-sex partner.”
Okay, I loved this speech, especially the part about the us and them. It reminded me so much of my hard working grandmother who came to this country in the early 1900s and worked day and night to raise her three children alone after her husband died and did not speak a word of English. I thought of my father who loved this country and earned his citizenship in the late 193os and all of his friends and relatives who were the “thems” to the “uses” that were already here. I loved the story of the young “dreamer” from Nevada who is in college hoping to become a doctor. I loved PBO’s clarity about what needs to be done. And, politically, I LOVED that he said (to the Republics in the Senate) that this was the same immigration plan that he’s been talking about for THREE years. At which point, I said “eat it, Rubio and McCain.”
I loved this speech, too, Jackie. He was crystal clear. And unlike John McCain, he focused on the fact that along with policy, that we should keep in mind that these are real lives, real people who are going to be affected. It was a very touching speech – especially when he rattled off all the nations that came here and formed the America that people live in today. “Before they were ‘us’, they were ‘them'”. I loved it. This man knows how to reach people in their hearts. All I can say is: all the 2016 contenders are lucky that President Obama won’t be running against them.
It is “in our bones,” whether your family came over on the Mayflower or on a slave ship or was one of a crowd at Ellis Island, we all came from “somewhere else” and we were all at one time–the outsiders. Aside from a very few landed gentry who were given greats plots of land by an English, French of Spanish kings, all of our families struggled to adapt, to learn a new language, to adjust to a different culture and build a new life.
And for everyone in our country who thought we could never get healthcare reform done … done. And for everyone who thinks we can’t get comprehensive immigration reform done … y’all are forgetting President Obama is in the White House. And then there are other things we couldn’t get done like saving the auto industry, our economy, bringing home the troops, getting bin Laden …
Yes, world … yes, country … he does not make false promises. I love our President so much I could burst, I tell ya!
You said it, Jacq! As Michelle Obama once said, people underestimate President Obama at their own peril. He’s got many lying by the wayside to prove it – and many more who wised up after learning the lesson and are now working in his Administration.
“IT’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood…..a beautiful day……” Why???? Because it’s RAINING in droughtstricken Oklahoma City! I sang this at school today between classes while looking out the window. We are SO thankful to have this bit of rain, well more than a bit…..but at least perhaps a beginning after three DRY years! Our lakes have about dried up, water rationing is on deck in many cities…..Hopefully all the rain storms So Cal and Phoenix have been having will move east and settle over us.
Glad to see the President getting out in front of people on immigration. His presentations are so much better than those Senators’. Well thought out, liberal and generous, compassionate.
Congratulations Senator Kerry on being our new SOS. Yes, it was quite a road from war protester……and he was RIGHT…..to now. Someone mentioned 2004, and how different life is now for the two main protagonists of that Demo convention. Kerry has had a long, sometimes tortuous road, but I do think this is the job he truly wants, although he would have been an excellent president, and not just in comparison to GWB.
Excellent points about Senator Kerry (soon to be Secretary), Carolyn. And congratulations on the rain. We gladly wave it goodbye from Southern California on it’s way to you in Oklahoma City! 🙂
Well said, Linda. McCain is the perfect illustration of an elitist “us,” talking about “them.” I wonder if he has any idea how he sounds. Condescension just drips from him as if he were reluctantly bestowing favors on the unwashed masses.
That’s how McCain treats immigrants, women, people who are minorities … how I saw him during a Senate hearing treat a woman representing families of POW-MIAs – how he treats our President.
He does not like himself, either, that is obvious, and is the real reason he has not learned to like “others.”
How does this President manage to be remarkable in pretty much everything he does. While we’re celebrating that amazing immigration speech, we then see that he was doing something equally admirable earlier in the day. He’s the embodiment of that old military saying, “we do more before breakfast than most people do in a while day”… or something like that.
Obama White House.gov
The Obama Diary 
Okay, I’m all ears! Bring on the President, please.
Lots of space here guys. Come on in!
Congrats vcprezofan2.
😆 Congrats to you too, Jewelz.
Way To Go VC….. 😯 Two in a roll? 🙂
Congratulations, Lady.
I was testing my running shoes, Nena. Now that I know they still have a bit of sprint in them, I’ll put them away again for another time. 😛 😛
1st???
You and I together! Sweet! 😆 😆
I can’t wait to hear how the President focuses his ideas. After all, he has spent quite some time deliberating the various aspects of this issue.
can I be 3rd?
Congrats VC, did you make it back from D.C. in one piece?
TY, yes I did, LP, and I’m almost ready for another trip. 😉
Congrats VC ..
Kasai’s live link from the previous post
http://www.upi.com/blog/2013/01/29/WATCH-LIVE-Obama-pitches-immigration-reform-in-Las-Vegas-255pm-ET/2401359477473/
#FORWARD
Thanks. Are you the new Bobfr or the regular Bobfr? 😉 😉 😆 😆
Chips, could you add Kasai’s link to the post?
http://www.upi.com/blog/2013/01/29/WATCH-LIVE-Obama-pitches-immigration-reform-in-Las-Vegas-255pm-ET/2401359477473/
CSPAN One TV is also carrying the speech live.
Added Hopefruit! Same feed as WH Live.
Okay – good to know, thanks. 🙂
I’m here too, but busy doing things around the house. Will probably watch on C-Span so I can keep working. 😦 Also have to do the strengthening exercises for my back. I know they are helping but I am SO ready to be 100% again.
Just added the C-Span link:
http://www.c-span.org/Events/Pres-Obama-Delivers-Remarks-on-Immigration-Reform/10737437643/
:):) Bob and I had the same idea at the same time – thanks Chips 🙂
PBO onstage early!
He’s already speaking!!! 15 minutes early…
He is already speaking.
HEY! They have started EARLY!! Heads up!
Man, our reporting team is sharp! FIVE of us clocked in at the same time with the news that the ball has started rolling. 😆 TOD – Best news agancy for the Prezzie.
Damn! POTUS is early!
S-H-O-C-K, POTUS early.
I’m watching POTUS on MSNBC.
Introducing folk …
Woah, he’s early!
What was the crowd chanting?
Si se puede
si se puede….
#NowIsTheTime
Good day Chips and TOD Family. Look at what we did. Love our POTUS.
Hello Hz! Yes indeed we do love our PBO.
Oooohhh that’s a very deep dig at the GOP Mr Plouffe!!!
“Joseph McCarthy himself headed the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations in 1953 and 1954, and during that time used it for …..”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism
His debut on Twitter has been rather fierce 🙂
He’s doing exceptionally well … back into meetings for the next several hours … bbl
Yes We Can
1. Stay focused on enforcement. 2. We have to deal with the 11 million immigrants who are here illegally.
3. We’ve got to bring our legal immigration system into the 21st century, because it no longer reflects the values of our time.
Smarter Enforcement, A Pathway to Earn Citizenship, Improvement in the Legal Immigration System ! Si Si Puede!
Sorry if I spelled Si Se Puede wrong!
Good Afternoon Everyone:
I think it is very strategic of the President to give a speech on immigration reform. This way, those republicans who quickly had a change of heart after the November elections could not go around and collect CREDITS for immigration reform. Just saying.
This is not meant to contradict your point, NCLB, yet sometimes when I listen to the President I’m left with the impression that he doesn’t pay too much attention to the collection of credits, GOP’s or otherwise. Instead I get a strong sense that he does what he does, when he does, because he just believes it’s the right thing to do and the right time to do it. For example, listening to him today, I don’t think the bipartisan guys’ announcement yesterday made the least difference to what the President wanted to say to the nation on the subject of immigration.
My President is BRILLIANT.
Aaaww! You’re not done already, sir? It’s been awhile since I’ve heard you speaking, can’t you add a little more? 😉 🙂
You know, while I’m extremely happy and satisfied the President won re-election and is officially serving his second term, I’m compelled to confess that I miss seeing and HEARING him almost every day. I wonder if he or his team has a solution for that? Like a thrice weekly ‘Chat with the People’, added to his weekly message, of course. 😛
And he gave the speech in NV, a key state and home of Harry Reid. Harry Reid’s next election may depend on this.
Glad to see the POTUS is going to stick around to shake some hands.
Will there be a transcript of this somewhere, because if so: I do definitely want that for my English class.
See Bill R below for transcript. 🙂
Awesome, thanks 🙂
Freaking fantastic speech and freaking fantastic proposal. We are a better country for having a president like Barack Obama. It’s a new day.
Draft of President’s plan for Immigration Reform: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/01/29/read-president-obamas-immigration-proposal/
“It also treats same-sex families as families by giving U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents the ability to seek a visa on the basis of a permanent relationship with a same-sex partner.”
Thanks Bill
Okay, I loved this speech, especially the part about the us and them. It reminded me so much of my hard working grandmother who came to this country in the early 1900s and worked day and night to raise her three children alone after her husband died and did not speak a word of English. I thought of my father who loved this country and earned his citizenship in the late 193os and all of his friends and relatives who were the “thems” to the “uses” that were already here. I loved the story of the young “dreamer” from Nevada who is in college hoping to become a doctor. I loved PBO’s clarity about what needs to be done. And, politically, I LOVED that he said (to the Republics in the Senate) that this was the same immigration plan that he’s been talking about for THREE years. At which point, I said “eat it, Rubio and McCain.”
I loved this speech, too, Jackie. He was crystal clear. And unlike John McCain, he focused on the fact that along with policy, that we should keep in mind that these are real lives, real people who are going to be affected. It was a very touching speech – especially when he rattled off all the nations that came here and formed the America that people live in today. “Before they were ‘us’, they were ‘them'”. I loved it. This man knows how to reach people in their hearts. All I can say is: all the 2016 contenders are lucky that President Obama won’t be running against them.
For those who missed the brilliant speech, here you go. You must watch it when you can. 🙂
Thank you, UT. As always… 🙂
It is “in our bones,” whether your family came over on the Mayflower or on a slave ship or was one of a crowd at Ellis Island, we all came from “somewhere else” and we were all at one time–the outsiders. Aside from a very few landed gentry who were given greats plots of land by an English, French of Spanish kings, all of our families struggled to adapt, to learn a new language, to adjust to a different culture and build a new life.
…except native americans, whose traditions teach of their people’s origins in their tribal lands.
POTUS is looking mighty fine today, oh, and the speech was not to bad either. 😀
I agree with VC I miss seeing him too!
And for everyone in our country who thought we could never get healthcare reform done … done. And for everyone who thinks we can’t get comprehensive immigration reform done … y’all are forgetting President Obama is in the White House. And then there are other things we couldn’t get done like saving the auto industry, our economy, bringing home the troops, getting bin Laden …
Yes, world … yes, country … he does not make false promises. I love our President so much I could burst, I tell ya!
You said it, Jacq! As Michelle Obama once said, people underestimate President Obama at their own peril. He’s got many lying by the wayside to prove it – and many more who wised up after learning the lesson and are now working in his Administration.
Yes, to all of that!!!!
“IT’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood…..a beautiful day……” Why???? Because it’s RAINING in droughtstricken Oklahoma City! I sang this at school today between classes while looking out the window. We are SO thankful to have this bit of rain, well more than a bit…..but at least perhaps a beginning after three DRY years! Our lakes have about dried up, water rationing is on deck in many cities…..Hopefully all the rain storms So Cal and Phoenix have been having will move east and settle over us.
Glad to see the President getting out in front of people on immigration. His presentations are so much better than those Senators’. Well thought out, liberal and generous, compassionate.
Congratulations Senator Kerry on being our new SOS. Yes, it was quite a road from war protester……and he was RIGHT…..to now. Someone mentioned 2004, and how different life is now for the two main protagonists of that Demo convention. Kerry has had a long, sometimes tortuous road, but I do think this is the job he truly wants, although he would have been an excellent president, and not just in comparison to GWB.
Excellent points about Senator Kerry (soon to be Secretary), Carolyn. And congratulations on the rain. We gladly wave it goodbye from Southern California on it’s way to you in Oklahoma City! 🙂
Fantastic Carolyn. I personally love the rain at anytime.
We’re even getting some nice rain & snow up here in DRY Northern New Mexico…very badly needed.
Missed it all but the hand shaking. Will look forward to seeing it on video shortly.
Thanks for the tweets ut. This is a huge help to those who are unable to see/hear the speech.
second that!
You bet! You are a wonder-tweeter. Thanks for sharing.
Obama states the value and dignity of immigrants.
McCain says we have to do something about immigration; Obama beat us by 70%.
Obama talks about the immigrant contribution to Instagram, Intel, etcetera. He talks about how 1 in 4 business are started by immigrants.
McCain only mentions their woth in terms of cleaning our homes, working our fields, and mowing our lawns.
I think our immigrants and all of our citizens understand the difference as to how human beings are treated by the 2 different parties, and why.
You captured it perfectly. One sees fellow citizens and fellow humans; the other only sees votes and servants. One is President; the other isn’t.
Well said, Linda. McCain is the perfect illustration of an elitist “us,” talking about “them.” I wonder if he has any idea how he sounds. Condescension just drips from him as if he were reluctantly bestowing favors on the unwashed masses.
That’s how McCain treats immigrants, women, people who are minorities … how I saw him during a Senate hearing treat a woman representing families of POW-MIAs – how he treats our President.
He does not like himself, either, that is obvious, and is the real reason he has not learned to like “others.”
This was one helluva speech, and people seem to be getting PBO’s drift….
Oh man, just one of those days at Bibliotequa de LL.
How does this President manage to be remarkable in pretty much everything he does. While we’re celebrating that amazing immigration speech, we then see that he was doing something equally admirable earlier in the day. He’s the embodiment of that old military saying, “we do more before breakfast than most people do in a while day”… or something like that.
New post:
http://theobamadiary.com/2013/01/29/a-lot-of-folks-forget-that-most-of-us-used-be-them/
Hell Yeah! 😀
Brilliant!